Mustangs sweep Brush to open the volleyball season

Share this:

Brush sophomore Allyson Foiles (11, center) and Fort Morgan senior Genavieve Pelton (11, left) go up at the net to try and make a play on the ball in their season-opening match at Brush High School on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017.

BRUSH — For the second straight season, the Fort Morgan volleyball team swept Morgan County rival Brush to kickoff the season. This time, the Mustangs did so on the road.

“I really liked what I saw from the team tonight and I believe the team is proud of themselves,” Fort Morgan coach Kylie Baldwin said. “We have some tactical things we have been working on in practice and we did those things well tonight.”

The Mustangs got off to a fast start in the first set, scoring the first five points for the early lead. The lead continued to grow early as their offense got Brush out of rhythm with big shots at the net. Senior Haley Lewis led the team in kills and had plenty of help from fellow seniors Genavieve Pelton, Riley Bauman and Kelsey Shaver.

“Other teams know that Haley is our power hitter, but what many teams don’t know is that we’ve been working on our middle and setter connection and with me and others on the outside,” Pelton said. “I’m more of a soft, smart hitter that plays over the blocks.”

Junior Kelsey Kalous and Bauman had a number of blocks that helped the Mustangs to take the first set 25-11.

In the second set, the Mustangs went on a small run early and midway through the set to take an 18-10 lead. Rather than pulling away late for another big win, the Beetdiggers started to gain some ground offensively and rallied back to within one point late in the set. The rally came up short as Fort Morgan scored the final point to win the set 25-23.

Despite the loss, newfound momentum for Brush carried over into the third set and saw them take a 6-1 lead to open the set. Big serves from Allyson Foiles and better passing on the back line from Hailey Brunner and others gotthe team back on track and the offense to get better swings at the net.

“You could see the jitters and it took a little while to work them out,” Brush coach Malori Rudnik said. “We had some great passes from the back row, but it took a little while to get the offense going for us.”

With the early deficit and struggles in the third set, Baldwin called a timeout to address her team to get the set back in their favor.

“My message to them was that they were in control at that point,” Baldwin said. “We ran the board in the first game, but we had to own our errors after that. We had to make the decision and make it as a team. Once we made that decision, we knew the game would go how we wanted it to go.”

The Mustangs chipped their way into the lead and tied the set at 12. From there, the team outscored Brush 13-3, including six straight points to close the set and to complete the sweep.

Fort Morgan opens the season with a road win and will host the Erie Tigers in their home opener on Tuesday, looking to build off of some strong play in Brush.

“We have a lot of good things with this team,” Pelton said. “We want our season to be big and this first game proves that.”

Rudnik and her Brush volleyball team will host Akron on Friday and their home tournament on Saturday, giving them four more games this week to build off of their first one against Fort Morgan.

“We’re going to build off of the positive things we did and improve on the negative things we did tonight,” Rudnik said. “Hopefully we can piece it together by the end of the weekend.”